A former Chicago police officer was sentenced Friday to 18 months in federal prison for using his police muscle to extort protection payoffs from heroin and crack dealers in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex.

Kallatt Mohammed, 47, remained defiant, telling U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman he was just following the orders of his superior officer so he could get time off to visit his children in Ohio.

"I never planned to do it. I never took anything that didn't belong to me," he said.

Standing before the bench in a striped dress shirt and tie, Mohammed had appeared to finish talking when his attorney prompted him to continue. He then briefly apologized "for any misbehavior that I participated in."